I am positive I have a very different take on romance covers than most romance readers.

I absolutely hate the clinch covers.

HATE THEM.

I hate the shirtless men, the utterly ridiculous muscles, the air-brushed perfection, I hate it all. If I was still reading primarily paper books I almost certainly would not pick up one of those books to even consider, I find those covers so off-putting. Luckily, I read primarily ebooks, so I don’t have to be bothered too much with covers I hate, since I don’t have to look at them unless I want to.

Which leads me to another point: As someone who primarily reads ebooks, I don’t care for the super busy covers with lots of detail, because I don’t see most of the detail, and it mostly looks like clutter. So to get my attention a book needs to look good as a thumbnail, since that’s what I’m going to see.

All these covers I particularly liked? Look good as thumbnails.

However, I will note a major issues with these covers: several of these covers are for stories that had a great deal of darkness to them. The bright and colorful covers give you no clue as to what you are actually going to find inside,

 

Agents of Winter (2022) Ada Maria Soto (The Agency)
Publisher: Rookery Publishing
No cover artist given, but have a suspicion the cover was created by the author.
LGBT

As much as I adore the first book in this series, His Quiet Agent  I don’t care for the cover. It’s not offensive, there’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t find it interesting. And really, considering she treated the whole thing as an exercise in self-publishing, that’s totally fine.

But this cover is pretty.

I love the deep blue, and even knowing Christmas lights make everything 100% prettier, it’s still lovely.

And if you read the first book, you know there is a significant amount of darkness is Martin’s life, but that Arthur manages to help keep some of that darkness at bay, which is something else the cover is showing you.

Always Only You (2020) Chloe Liese (Bergman Brothers)
self-published
Cover art by Jennie Rose Denton
Sports *

Female romantic lead with a cane.

On the cover.

An Agreement with the Soldier (2021) Sadie Bosque (Necessary Arrangements)
self-published
Cover art by Sadie Bosque
Historical *

This is a nice cover that wouldn’t garner much attention from me, except it’s self-published and she did the art herself and it is better than some “professionally” created covers.

Major kudos due here.

Additionally, the room she is in front of / looking into, is dark, which gives you a hint about some of the darkness in the story: she loses a sibling in war, and he has severe PTSD from that same war. It’s pretty, but it’s not hiding the darkness.

Husband Material (2022) Alexis Hall (London Calling)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Cover design and illustration by Elizabeth Turner Stokes
LGBT

I love Luc. He is such a mess.

This is clearly a call back to the previous book, Boyfriend Material and I love it just as much as the first. I think it’s the combination of all the straight lines and right angles and Luc slouching.

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (2022) Ashley Herring Blake (Bright Falls)
Publisher: Berkley
Cover art by Leni Kauffman
LGBT *

The tattoos. The just barely holding hands.

The purple!

Quibble: There are some dark currents in this book, including the repercussions of having lost one’s parents as a child, and completely and utterly toxic parental figures.

A Marriage of Equals (2021) Elizabeth Rolls
Publisher: Mills & Boon
No cover artist given, but this is a Harlequin imprint
Historical *

There is something about the way she is staring directly at the camera that I find incredibly compelling.

So it’s less the design and layout here, and mostly and selecting an amazing picture.

Dearest Milton James (2021) N.R. Walker
Publisher: BlueHeart Press
Cover artist: N.R. Walker & Sam York
LGBT *

Very simple, but shows you the heart of the story—the lost letters.

Life’s Too Short (2021) Abby Jimenez (The Friend Zone)
Publisher: Forever
Cover design Sarah Congden
*

I know a lot of people don’t like illustrated / cartoon covers.

Those people are wrong.

The bright yellow background draws your eye and the distance between the two characters on the cover shows you precisely how far apart the world views of the two characters are.

Quibble: there is a far amount of darkness in this book: grief, addiction, serious illness, which you don’t at all pick up from the cover.

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble (2022) Alexis Hall (Winner Bakes All)
Publisher: Forever
Cover design and illustration by Elizabeth Turner Stokes
LGBT

Major quibble: this cover is it is so very bright and cheerful, it really doesn’t give you a hint as to how very dark and difficult parts of this book are: anxiety and a mental illness spiral, parental abandonment, racism. Although we get a happy ending, most of the book is not bright and cheerful. It makes this cover a bit of false advertising.

The Love Hypothesis (2021) Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Cover illustration by lilithsaur Book
*

I love all the science about this cover, even if the awkward kiss is super awkward and I don’t like looking at it.

You’ll note there is an even split between independent / self published books and books from major publishers.

Do I hold the former to a lower standard? Yeah. I do. But I think in a lot of cases those covers are just as good if not better than what I see from the big publishers.

• BlueHeart Press (Independent): 1
• Rookery Publishing (Independent): 1
• Sourcebooks Casablanca (Independent): 1
• Forever (Hachette): 2
• Berkley (Penguin): 2
• Mills & Boon (Harper Collins) : 1
• Self-published: 2

The Books of 2022: Yearly Reading Roundup

* Boinking